stunfisk
by kamentou
Summary: A Stunfisk has feelings, too.


**What is this, even. Stunfisk is my favorite Pokemon so I wanted to write a fic about one. Eugh my writing is poor and childish in this one but whatever I'm still gonna post it. **

For as long as he could remember, Stunfisk had been bullied by the children from Icirrus City. They liked to play in the area he lived in, so had he had often tried to make contact with them, shuffling toward them with a smile on his face, making happy sounding noises.

He vividly remembered the first time they saw him.

One of the girls had screamed. _Screamed_. He had thought it was a playful scream, but he later realized that it had been a scream of horror. Back then it had made him happy; he thought the girl found him funny and wanted to play with him. He had never had any pokémon friends, so he really wanted to try and make friends with humans. Especially these humans — they seemed friendly and happy.

Stunfisk had felt a jolt of pain right between his eyes. He had whimpered, noticing that a stick had been thrown at him by one of the boys. The boy was glaring at him, he did not look friendly anymore.

Stunfisk ran away after that, frightened. Later he reassured himself that he had shocked them and that he just needed to approach them differently. After all, such nice children definitely wanted to be friends with him, right?

Wrong. Stunfisk was horribly wrong.

Every time, Stunfisk failed to make friends with the children. They hated him, called him ugly, stepped on him, threw rocks and sticks at him. He was pelted with mud and spat at, and often they followed him to try and ruin the hollow under a tree which he called home.

After several unsuccessful tries, Stunfisk stopped looking for them. But by now, it had become a game for the children: hunt down that _freaky_ Stunfisk and torment him to the best of their abilities. Stunfisk was pretty sure that the children did not even consider him a pokémon anymore — he was just a creature to play with, to mock, to laugh at.

This upset him endlessly. He couldn't even fight back; he would get in horrible trouble from the pokémon in his area.

He had no friends, human nor pokémon. The other pokémon tended to avoid him, even fellow stunfisk. They, too, thought he was rather strange. Loneliness enveloped him, his tail drooped, and he often hoped that a trainer would come along and catch him — even if he would not be used in battle, anything would be better than his life presently. All he wanted was to be useful and have a friend.

Stunfisk had been sleeping in his hollow when he heard Icirrus' children approach him, getting ready to hurt him once again. He peeked out at a place where they could not see him, and — _oh no_, they were too close for him to escape without being noticed. The only thing Stunfisk could hope for was that they weren't going to be too mean today. Hopefully they would get bored quickly and just leave him alone.

"Shh, it might hear you," a child said, slowly creeping up to the hollow. Stunfisk knew who this was — the leader of the gang, no older than twelve.

"Yeah, you don't want to miss its ugliness," another child said — this one often threw mud at him.

"What are you going to do to him?" a voice asked — Stunfisk had never heard it before.

"We're gonna chase it out of its home and throw rocks at it," the leader said. Stunfisk shuddered, rocks hurt the most.

"And then what?" the new child asked. Stunfisk noticed the child seemed uncomfortable with the plan.

"Laugh at it!" the mud-child said, then laughed as if to prove her statement.

"But I don't want to hurt him," the new child wailed, surprising Stunfisk. No child had ever protested the leader's plans before, nor had anyone every objected to hurting him before.

"Shut up!" the leader hissed. Stunfisk figured that he wanted to get this assault over with, so he let out a cry of defeat and waddled out of his home.

"Hey, look, it's come out! Get it!" the leader cried, pointing a finger at him. Stunfisk quickly scooted away from the children, but even so, he felt a sharp rock hit his tail. Another one hit him right in the middle of his body. He heard footsteps and the rocks stopped momentarily; Stunfisk hoped he could make a dash for it, however —

Stunfisk squealed as he felt himself get picked up. "Stop hurting him!" a voice called, the owner of the arms that held him and the child that had protested hunting him earlier.

The leader huffed. "Matthew, if you're going to help the Stunfisk then you can't play with us! No one will want to be your friend!"

"But he's hurt…" the child named Matthew said. Stunfisk figured the boy was around eight or nine years old. "Hurting pokémon is mean!" Mathew countered suddenly, making Stunfisk give a jolt. "My Dad's a pokémon ranger, and he says it's wrong to hurt pokémon. They're our friends!"

"But this one is so ugly," the mud-child said.

"Yeah, Matthew, and you're new here, you don't get a say in what we do!" the leader said. "Put the Stunfisk down!"

Stunfisk figured that Matthew would put him down like the leader had said. No child ever dared to deviate from the leader's orders.

However, the new child was unpredictable. "No!" Matthew cried, and Stunfisk's eyes widened as the boy started to run away with him in his arms. The pokémon did not know what to think. No human had ever been kind to him in such a way.

Matthew quickly navigated toward Iccuris City without a word. He clutched Stunfisk tightly to his chest — a little too tightly, but Stunfisk did not feel unpleasant at all. Eventually, they arrived at a small home that Matthew entered, still holding Stunfisk. Stunfisk had never been inside a human house before, and felt fascinated by all of the contraptions that were inside. The boy took him in to another room, where he shut the door behind him. In here, Matthew set Stunfisk down on the floor. The boy sat down in front of him, then said, "I'm sorry they were mean to you. That's awful."

Stunfisk let out a cry to show the boy he was appreciative of his words.

"I'm new here, and I thought those kids were nice. They aren't though. Nice people aren't mean to pokémon. I'm going to tell my dad — he's a pokémon ranger, and when he gets home I'll have him treat you for injuries. He'll make the kids stop being mean to you, too," the boy said, reaching out a hand to pet Stunfisk.

Stunfisk had never been petted before, he thought it felt rather nice. Eventually, he hopped into the boy's lap, making Matthew stop mid sentence and laugh.

Continuing to let Stunfisk, Matthew started to speak again. "Anyway, it doesn't matter if I don't make friends here. In three months, I'll be twelve —" Stunfisk was surprised that the boy was that old; he didn't look twelve at all. "—and I'll be able to go on a pokémon journey. My mom says I can go this year, she's held me back for two whole years already." Matthew sighed. "I wonder what pokémon I'll pick."

Stunfisk tapped Matthew with his fin and made a noise.

Matthew raised his eyebrows. "You want me to pick you?"

Stunfisk made a positive noise.

Matthew laughed. "Okay!" Stunfisk was surprised. "After all," the boy continued, "you'll probably be my only friend until I leave. Will you stay with me even before I leave?"

Another positive noise from Stunfisk.

Matthew's eyes lit up. "I'm so happy!" he said, giving Stunfisk a hug.

Stunfisk, too, was happy. He'd never had anyone want to stay with him before, and the boy even wanted Stunfisk to travel with him when he left. Although Stunfisk thought such change in events was sudden…the pokémon figured he could get used to it.


End file.
